Classification of Snacks

Includes extruded corn chips, tortilla chips and related snacks, direct extruded items such as corn puffs and curls, pretzels, and fabricated chips or sticks. 

Imitation pork rinds, wheel shaped puffs or sticks obtained after frying of half-products or pellets. 

Minimum processed snacks obtained from grains and fruits from natural products. 

Most popular category of snack foods, generally obtained after simple shaping of doughs or dry-milled fractions forced through an extruder (direct expanded products). Raw materials include various types of flours and grits. 

Most elaborate products, also called half-products or pellets generally produced by a two-step extrusion process (cooking and forming extruders). The formulation of these snacks uses a wide array of ingredients. These products require additional processes before they are ready for the consumer, such as baking and deep-fat frying. Most pellets are further processed by frying. 

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TABLE 12.1 Classification of Snack Foods according to Manufacturing Process.356... 

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